Abdullahi Bego, special advisor to the Yobe state government, told the BBC on Monday that no security forces had been operating in the area when the attack on the College of Agriculture took place.

He acknowledged that security forces are meant to undertake regular patrols of educational institutions.

He said schools in the area would not be closed because that is what the "terrorists" wanted.

"We are committed to providing education to our children in Yobe state and in north-eastern Nigeria," he said.

The state authorities would work with the military to reinforce protection at schools, he added.

A survivor of the attack has told the BBC Hausa service he and at least 200 other students ran away from the college when they heard gunfire.

"We tried to run to escape for fear of our lives. The windows were open so we escaped through them and ran into the bush. We didn't even know where we were."

He said he was chased by residents of a nearby village who mistook him for a thief: "They were scared themselves when they saw us. They thought we were thieves and they in turn chased us with sticks and clubs. We had to continue running deep into the bush."

He said he was traumatised by the attack: "I have seen dead bodies of my friends and people I know very well. It is very depressing and emotional. They were people I was talking to before I went to bed."

Casualty figures from the attack vary, but a local politician told the BBC that around 50 students had been killed.

The Nigerian military said soldiers had collected 42 bodies and taken 18 wounded students to a hospital in Yobe's state capital, Damaturu.

Footage shot by the Associated Press shows the bodies of at least 23 young men lined up on the floor of what appears to be a makeshift mortuary in the town.

About 1,000 students had fled the campus in the wake of the attack, according to college provost Molima Idi Mato.

The gunmen also set fire to classrooms, a military spokesman in Yobe state, Lazarus Eli, told Agence France-Presse.

The college is in the rural Gujba district.

In May, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered an operation against Boko Haram, and a state of emergency was declared for the north-east on 14 May.

Many of the Islamist militants left their bases in the north-east and violence initially fell, but revenge attacks quickly followed.

In June, Boko Haram carried out two attacks on schools in the region.

At least nine children were killed in a school on the outskirts of Maiduguri, while 13 students and teachers were killed in a school in Damaturu.

In July in the village of Mamudo in Yobe state, Islamist militants attacked a school's dormitories with guns and explosives, killing at least 42 people, mostly students.

Boko Haram regards schools as a symbol of Western culture. The group's name translates as "Western education is forbidden".

Boko Haram is led by Abubakar Shekau. The Nigerian military said in August that it might have killed him in a shoot-out.

However, a video released last week purportedly showed him alive.

Other previous reports of his death later proved to be unfounded.

Are you in north-eastern Nigeria? Do you have connections with the College of Agriculture? Send us your story and comments using the form below.

If you are happy to be contacted by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can
contact you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as
you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published.
When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others,
take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.